hurricane sandy inching her way towards us tonight as she gets ready to slam the east coast with heavy rain and high winds. this was a day of preparation. shelves, batteries, water and other essentials as people get ready for likely power outages. good evening, everyone. i'm chris gordon in tonight for jim rosenfield. we have team coverage tonight from across the d.c. mess troe area to the eastern shore. we begin with storm team 4 chief meteorologist doug kammerer with the latestn sandy's track. >> right now sandy just off the coast of florida. you can see it right there on

the satellite picture here. the hurricane making its way up towards the north. still a hurricane at this hour. not a very well-defined hurricane but once again, wr watching this thing very, very closely and it's making its way up the coast. you can see what we have going on as far as north carolina already seeing some heavy rain making its way in there. the winds starting to gust across that region, and now we're seeing the cloud cover. if were you out earlier you could look up and actually start to see the clouds in sandy as its making it's way up north. the brand new track just in from the national hurricane center. winds, 75 miles an hour moving to the northeast, 13 miles an hour, deepening. as we move through the next day or two it's moving out and as we've been talking about and forecasting this over a week now, move back into the mid-atlantic states, and you notice we are tuesday at 3:00 right on top of us. the worst of this will most likely be monday night into

early tuesday morning and we're going to be watching this one very closely and this is why. yes, a rain event, yes, coastal flooding problems but it's the wind. sunday into monday dealing with 25 to 40 mile-an-hour winds and look at the 60 mile-an-hour wind gusts coming onshore as the system comes onshore overnight monday night into early on tuesday morning. we could be in for a very long duration storm and a long period with winds over 40 miles per hour and gusts up to 60. more warning and watches have just been issued. i'll show them to you live in a couple of minutes. >> see you then. and we are following breaking news right now from delaware. the governor has just ordered mandatory coastal evacuations in some areas. wendy rieger is live in rehoboth beach tonight and joins us with details. >> reporter: well, chris what they're saying is the governor just declared a mandatory evacuation starting at 8:00

tonight. you have 24 hours, anyone with three quarters of a mile from the oceanfront or thebay. bethany, dewey and here in rehoboth. this will not be enforced. police are not going door to door but it is strongly encouraged, as doug just told you, the weather system is coming in, in the next 24 to 48 hours. this is not going to be a pleasant place to be. they want to get people out of here and they have a lot of people to get out of here. this is seawich weekend here in rehoboth. a lot of people came in for a big halloween party. a big day today. a big party here tonight and many people, a lot from our area, i've seen a lot of people here from t washington area are coming in. everyone says they'll be getting out tomorrow morning or tomorrow around middays, which they were planning to do anyway. right within govern markell's window of that evacuation. just to get people away from these coastal towns and get them to safety. we are expecting some bad rains coming in tonight, and the winds are picking up.

it is going to be nast but the party's going to go on. i'm told people have to get out of here. reporting from rehoboth, back to you. sandy is not taking people by surprise. we've been tracking it for days and the good news, people are preping. news 4 jackie bensen is live in fairfax where essentials like batteries and water is coming off the shelves fast. jackie? >> reporter: hello, chris. well, people are trying to walk a fine line between preparation and panic, and if you've lived in this area for any amount of time i don't need to tell you which side is winning. at twins ace hardway on main street and fairfax you can tell what people need by looking at the empty spaces on the shelves rnts pandemonium all day today and yesterday. from the moment we opened our doors yesterday, everybody is getting everything they can to prepare. >> reporter: this space on the second floor held portable generators.

almost unheard of for inside the beltway use a decade ago, now a hot commodity. after many found themselves in the dark days after this summer's dur rage erecho storm, aren't taking chances. >> battery, like everyone else. the guy fixed this. i bought a battery. now i have a light bulb for that. >> reporter: and officials hope to avoid a repeat of the massive 911 failure dur, the summer storm. >> i'm very hopeful that we won't have another incident like we did with the derecho storm. i've been on the phone twice with doug from verizon who has sent me numerous e-mails and assured smurn wi assur assured someone will be at the emergency operation center. >> reporter: a tip for those starting to get stress the out not being able to find things

like battery, bottle the water. chris, you'll back me up on this. look for an independent hardware store. independent grocery store. ones not part of a chain locally owned, very often family owned. they have special ways to get supplies in that are sometimes not available to the bigger chains. that is your best bet for getting this very sought-after stuff at this point. jackie bensen, dmnews 4. true in home depot. thanks, jackie. a live look now at national airport. the major airlines are asking passengers if you're flying monday, tuesday or wednesday, in the northeast, to change your flight. nair waiving fees for cancellations and changes to keep delays to a minimum. those fees normally can go up to about $150. on the rails, metro has sandbags in place around low-lying tunnels and stations in case of flooding. above ground service could be slowed if winds are sustained

over 30 miles an hour. gusts above 60 could cause delays for amtrak. its deploying extra crews across the northeast. stay with news 4, and nbcwashington.com for continuing coverage of hurricane sandy. we're also posting constant updates on facebook and twitter. well, the impending extreme weather brought people out to vote even earlier than planned today. polling places throughout d.c. were packed with early voters. as news 4's derrick ward reports, many had a long wait. >> reporter: the long lines were encouraging. lots of participation in the process, but a number of saturday's early voters found discouraging conditions at the polling places. >> the machines broke down and two machines working and they still trying to have people leaving because they're getting discouraged. >> encouraging people to vote early. when they said that, they should have eight to ten machines in

here. >> reporter: part of the problem, anyone can vote, but with dozens of advisory commission races varying from precinct to precinct, some machines had to be programmed for specific locations. others sat unused. >> repositions machines where the busiest spots are and pleasantly surprised by the turnout. >> similar conditions existed here at the rec center in the northeast. we found a lot of people said that would leave and come back later. no one said they wouldn't vote early because of these delays. and first-time voters stood fast. >> i expected it to be this crowded. >> not discouraged. wait it out. >> reporter: the d.c. board of elections officials said if the storm knocks out power, backup generators would be used to pouber machines that empower the people. >> i don't care how long the line is. we're here. we're going to vote. >> reporter: derrick ward, news 4. lines were long in maryland today, too. hundreds lined up at the sports and learning complex in prince georges county. a similar situation in oxon hill, maryland, where lines wrap

around the public library. some people say they waited for as long as four hours to cast their ballot. most people that we talked to said they expected to wait several hours to vote. they didn't mind. both presidential campaigns are cancelling events to make sure that emergency responders can deal with sandy. mitt romney cancelled all of his sunday campaign stops in virginia. he's going to ohio instead. president obama hasn't scratched any events yet, but air force one is changing its flight schedule, and vice president biden cancelled a sunday stop in virginia beach. still ahead tonight, a silent salute for a police officer killed in prince georges county. plus, we're continuing to update sandy. >> reporter: as the threat of sandy becomes more real for residents in rehoboth beach, citizens prepare for the worst. i'm erikaerica gonzalez, more c

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family, friends and fellow officers celebrated the life of a prince georges county police officer today. outside st. stephen's baptist church in temple hills, a silent

salute to the officer kevin bowden. officer bowden died last week when an suv collided with his cruiser in clinton, maryland. off duty at the time. the 28-year-old is survived by his wife and two children. charles county police are increasing patrols and handing out flyers in hopes of solving a deadly shooting in waldorf. it happened last night. police say a husband and wife were shot while walking their dog. that was last night, and it was near the high school, west lake high school. the woman was killed. her husband remains in the hospital. tonight a coastal evacuation. it's been ordered in parts of delaware. today people on the shore prepared for the worse. we'll have a report from rehoboth beach. let's take a live look outside right now. quiet, but it could go downhill

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his companies shipped jobs overseas. his plan cuts millionaires' taxes, but raises yours. he'll voucherize medicare... and make catastrophic cuts to education. so remember what romney said... and what his plan would do. president obama: i'm barack obama and... i approve this message. we're tracking sandy for you tonight, and an update on the breaking nez when he at the top of the broadcast. mandatory coastal evacuations ordered in communities of kent, new castle and sussex counties. those evacuations are scheduled to start tonight tat 8:00 and continue throughout the next 24 hours. erika gonzalez is in rehoboth beach where some residents are already getting ready for the storm. >> reporter: like a marksman

zeroing in on a target. sandy pushes closer to the east coast. businesses boarding up as the forecast grows dire. on ocean city, maryland's boardwalk, jimmy mill hear done this before. >> you have to get ready. you have to be ready for anything. you know? you're here. your store, 100 feet away from the ocean. >> reporter: hardware stores are running low on the go-to items. >> through two truckloads of generators. just got a truckload of batteries which are selling. >> reporter: so bad, in fact, we found this man roadside making his own sandbags. >> 12 hours had of rain. i had eight inches of water in my garage. >> reporter: families stockpiling food and water. >> most people, we're not taking any chances. >> reporter: yet earlier today, a halloween parade through rehoboth beach would make you ask, what hurricane? "today's" show al roker says

it's surreal. >> talking about more than the distance between new york and washington, d.c. so i think people ignore this at their own peril. >> reporter: sandy is expected to do more damage than irene's $15 billion price tag. in rehoboth beach, erika gonzalez, news 4. and working, getting ready for the marine corps marathon tomorrow? >> yes. i think okay. see a few showers early tomorrow morning, but that's really going to be about it. as far as our weather goes, the next couple of days, man, things are going downhill very, very quickly. again, a nice night tonight. not too bad tomorrow and tomorrow night is when things get started. look now, where hurricane sandy is. outside no problem. if you're making your way out and about, you still have time to prepare for the storm as its making its way our way now. enjoy this evening. go out if you get a chance to. enjoy yourself. the next few days you may not have power in your house. hur kay sandy making its way up the coast now. off the coast of jacksonville.

you can see the center of the storm right here. kind of looks like a hurricane, but all of this out here, starting to take on extra tropical characteristics. that's not going to matter to you. sandy now, winds of 75 miles an hour moving no the northeast at about 13 miles an hour. northeast, puts it farther out to sea. good news. we've been talking about the last couple of days and pretty much the last week, this is going to make its turn back towards the west right towards our region. the impact here is critical for the beaches. if it's north of rehoboth beach and north of ocean city, they get much less storm surge here. if it's south and can still come south, they'll see a lot more in the way of storm surge. latest commuter models trending towards the new jersey border. new jersey coastline. much better news for the delmarva. still going to see surge down there and for us, it doesn't matter where this comes ashore. new york or down towards ri richmond, we are all going to vee devastating winds across our area for about a 12 to 24-hour

period maybe longer. rain? no rain now. a few showers back towards the mountains and then down towards the south. these are the first showers from sandy. making their way up towards portions of the area. you see what i'm talking about as we widen out the shower activity. seeing heavy rain and here's the frontal boundary back to the west. it is this front and a piece of energy in the upper levels of the atmosphere that are going to pick up sandy and move it right back in, swing it right back in, towards our region. let's show you what's happening. impacts today, haven't seen any impacts. low pacts well down to the south. high impacts right now along the carolina coastline. as the storm moves to the north, tomorrow we'll call it low impact. most of this is during the afternoon tomorrow. scattered showers. rather breezy conditions. again, nothing we haven't dealt with before. it's down towards the coastline they're going to start to see those winds picking up to 50, 60 miles an hour down there towards ocean city, towards lewis and towards rehoboth beach and on monday, as the storm makes the turn, back towards the west, everybody in our viewing area,

for the most part, will be under very high impact scenario and maybe extreme impact here on the jersey shore. all towards our beaches. potential extreme impact with a storm surge of four to eight feet that could be historical storm surge and we'll talk about damage there. the d.c. area, it will be wind and it will be rain on tuesday. same deal. storm moving inland. as it does so, talking wind and rain. biggest deal, strong winds, coastal flooding, heavy rain, but power outages by far the biggest story with this storm. something else coming out from the national hurricane center. a high wind watch. similar to a tropical storm watch, but a high wind watch with gusts to 60 miles an hour for just about everybody in our viewing area towards culpepper. not in this. doesn't mean you won't see strong winds. you, too, see strong winds. the wind forecast over the next day or so. by tomorrow, 5:00, gusting upwards of 15, 20 maybe 30 miles an hour out towards the shores of chesapeake.

by monday, see winds pick up. tropical storm force winds along the chesapeake bay. winds in the 30s and upper 40s during the day on monday as we move through the afternoon. look at the 60s coming into the washington, d.c. metro area overnight monday night into the day on tuesday. this is what we'll watch out for closely. also a flood watch in effect. five to ten inches of rain for about the entire area, that flood watch, encompassing sunday night into the day tuesday. we'll see flooding and may not be done with river flooding until the end of the week. tomorrow, no worries. tomorrow a fairly nice day early when you consider just how bad the next few days are going to be. showers out there. you will need umbrellas. rather breezy but not bad with a high of 60. 53 monday. 47 on tuesday. 47 will be a very cold, rainy and windy day tuesday. wednesday coming in at 54 degrees. we'll watch this closely. should move out of here for the

most part by halloween. halloween not looking good either. >> look for an updacht at 11:00. >> i'll be here. sports, the terps, step it up in the second half. bupt would

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get coricidin hbp. the number one pharmacist recommended cold brand designed for people with high blood pressure. and the only one i use to relieve my cold symptoms without raising my blood pressure. coricidin hbp. besides sand, looking forward to the redskins tomorrow. >> through rain, snow, sleet and threat of hurricane winds we have redskins news to report and

gosh darn it we're gorge to do it. fa facing the steelers. fletcher is going through his normal saturday preps. no lingering hamstring or balance issues and the 'skins are fully expecting him back tomorrow. college gridiron, terps are starting a streak. unfortunately the wrong kind. losing fourth quarter leads. the freshman, only quarterback left, tough first half for him. two interceptions but in the second he does turn it around. down 13-0, pick it up, fourth and goal here. a beautiful fade there to nigel king in the corner. the end zone. first t.d. pass of his career. terps on the comeback trail 13-7. fourth quarter, roe and the terps down 13-10. on third and three, zip one to a streaking stephon diggs. >> nice. >> yeah. usually we see him duking out defenders, chris. here he out runs them.

64 yards. terps score 17 unanswered points and go up 17-13, but for the second week in a row, the defense cannot hold on to the lead. that's chase to jonathan coleman. 14 yards. he was wide open. back on top, 27-17. did it last week with 32 seconds. this week 46 seconds to get him down but, ah, picked off by spencer. a disappointing end but a great game. 20-17 the final. navy fans looking relaxed before a battle against those pirates of east carolina. pick it up, second quarter, all tied up at 14. freshman keenen reynolds, q.b. on the keep. refs come in, take as moment. he rule it a touchdown. navy up 24-14 and then in the third quarter, reynolds again calling his own number from one yarder to a two yarder. second rushing touchdown of the day. navy up 28-14. reynolds can do it with his arm,

too. third quarter. finding casey for the 15-yard touchdown. right now navy leads east carolina 56-21. >> whew. >> in the fourth quarter. also, howard falls to south carolina state 41-23. other football united visits chicago trying to lock up the second seed in the east. d.c. down 1-0. 50th minute. heads it in. and that's the news for